


Trigger Happy Hunting

by feliciahardys



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, bandit!timothy, i dont proof read so sorry in advance folks, more tags'll be added as we go along ladies and gents, post tales ep5, pre bl3, rhys is atlas ceo, timothy is a wanted man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-06 16:11:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18391847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feliciahardys/pseuds/feliciahardys
Summary: In which Jack's doppelganger, on the run from Hyperion, meets current the current CEO of Atlas while hunting. Hilarity, angst, and romance occur, obviously!





	1. First Impressions Are A Bust!

**Author's Note:**

> very sad lack of rhysothy content so i guess im here to deliver! lots of the rhysothy on here is rhys/tim/jack which sucks so to take matters into my own hands we have just plain old rhysothy! may be ooc, i am not a character wiz kid, but i do know my stuff so thats all a dear user can ask for i hope. enjoy, ciao!

Rifle in hand, Timothy crouched on the cliff's edge, aiming his sights at the skag den protruding from the bottom of the cliff. Where he was wasn't very far from the den, which was why he wasn't freaking out, but just being there was enough to make Tim feel slightly nauseous. That, or it was a side effect of having not eaten for a day. The skag meat that he had hunted when he was set up at Three Horns wasn't really built to last, but of course he didn't realize this. After hunting for it, Tim moved to The Dust. It was big, expansive, and he could live with in relative peace, if you didn't count all the other rowdy bandits holing up there. 

Timothy had set up a nice camp for himself in The Dust, but when his food ran out, he decided he was not going to be eating the spiderants, and promptly moved yet again. It's been like this since Timothy had ran away from Hyperion's control, and was forced to relocate to Pandora in the hopes that they wouldn't find him. So far, it's been working. Although troops have been sent down to areas he used to be living at, Tim's learned sharpness from his Elpis days made him ahead of the game. So far, no one's found him yet.

Now, he was here, back in Three Horns, trying to hunt some more skags. Skag meat has basically been Tim's only source of food since escaping Hyperion, and it was absolute shit, but a man's gotta eat. Impatiently waiting for skags to crawl out of their dens, Timothy decided to take a break from aiming and walked away from the nauseating cliff edge.

With the whole cliff being made of solid rock, there was no comfortable place for Tim to sit while waiting for the skags to appear. Deciding to plop down on what looked like the softest place on the rock, he looked out over the valley. 

This was what he called home now. This planet. Eden-5 being his home planet at all, Timothy wasn't used to Pandora at first. Eden-5 was, according to him, what normal felt like, although his normal wasn't very pretty. His mother was less than supportive of him, he was in massive debt, and he had no friends. When Hyperion selected him for their doppelganger initiative, Timothy was ecstatic. It was a chance. A chance to be a new him, to pay off those debts, finally get somewhere good in life. Then, he was sent to Elpis, along with the ragtag group of vault hunters Jack hired. 

He improvised. He learned things. And then he was tired of those things. This wasn't what he had signed up for and yet he was thrown into the fray anyways. After the mission was done he ran away, tried his best to hide from Hyperion. He travelled in a supply crate to Pandora, and his skills from Elpis allowed him to fit in quite easily, although he did have to hide his entire identity.

Everything Hyperion related had to go, his face had to go, he wouldn't be Timothy or Jack or anything similar anymore. He was just going to be a no-name bandit scrounging around like every other no-name bandit on Pandora. This was his new normal now. 

Deep in thought and sitting on the hard rock, Timothy was surprised when he heard talking coming from below. He fumbled around for his rifle, and looked through the sights to try and locate the source of the noise.

"Okay, so we're gonna start looking for them right around here..."

Timothy finally found out where the voice was coming from. Across the faded road, near the gas station, was a man. His most notable features were his cybernetic arm and his tattoo, which looked to extend from his neck to around his chest. Anxious to get a better look at this mysterious man, Timothy tried to find the route he had taken to get up the cliff to get down the cliff. Finding it after about a half minute of trying not to accidentally fall off, he carefully hopped down, trying not to alert the man to his presence. 

Getting a clearer look of the man, Tim noticed he was being followed by about five workers, all in hard hats and carrying mining supplies. The man was leading them to one of the geysers in the valley, looking at an image being displayed by his robo-arm. 

Judging by the arm and the workers, Timothy naturally assumed they were Hyperion. As far as he was aware, only Hyperion had access to the kind of tech advanced enough to create that arm. Sure, back when Dahl took over Helios, Colonel Zarpedon had an entire robot suit, but Timothy had a feeling. He was about ready to flee when a voice called out to him:

"Hey, bandit!"

Uh oh. Was he that noticeable? He thought he was being sneaky. Turning around nervously, Timothy saw that it was the mysterious man who had called him. Now, Tim had gotten into these situations before, and most of the time he blasted his way out with grenades, but this was different. He was frozen in his tracks. There was no way he would be able to run. And was that a blush coming over his cheeks? Timothy mentally slapped himself as he smiled under his bandit mask. Tim gave no response to the man, making him walk closer to the nervous doppelganger.

Panic rose in his chest as the man stood only a few feet in front of Timothy, with the men behind following suit. God, this man was cute, Tim thought, shame automatically filling his chest. This was Hyperion, why would he even think that? 

"Do you know if these geysers really have moonstones inside them?" The man asked Timothy.

Timothy's panic drifted away as he realized what the man had just asked. So that's what this was about. Huh. 

"My men and I are Atlas, see, and we've heard some rumors about these geysers having those rare Elpis stones in 'em," The man continued, raising an eyebrow at Timothy's still frozen figure. "Seeing as you haven't tried to kill us yet, I figured that you might be sort of civilized, so that's why I asked you."

"Um," Timothy coughed, grateful he had taken that stupid voice modulator out a while ago. "I'm not really, uh, sure about that but I'm sure I could help. In some way." 

Oh God, what was he saying? He had to hunt these skags or he would literally starve. He had literally no food, but here he was practically selling himself out to a weapons corporation just because this dude is cute as hell. 

Probably surprised by how out of place Timothy's voice sounded, with them being on Pandora at all, it took a bit for the man to respond. 

"That would be great, we could always use some extra help!" 

The man walked towards Timothy and patted him on the back. Tim could feel his face burning up just from that single touch, getting a whiff of the man's cologne, which smelled strongly of vinegar and blood, but he didn't really care. The man pulled a device which looked sort of like an ECHO but smaller out of his pocket and handed it to Tim.

"You can be our tracker, just follow the blue dots, which we assume are moonstones, and tell us where to start our mining! Easy enough for a bandit to understand, right?" 

Timothy looked at the small device carefully. It was like a mini map of the entire valley, but was covered in blue dots scattered around everywhere. He had no idea why some Atlas men wanted to find moonstones, or if moonstones were even here, but he did want to help them, especially the still mysterious man. A new air of confidence instilled in Timothy, he took the first step to where the little map said there was a moonstone.

And then he fainted.


	2. Well, That Went Great!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timothy gets flustered and the mystery man is revealed!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooooo ok we've done it boys. anyways what about that news that troy baker won't be reprising his role as rhys? thats a pain in the ass. hope people enjoy this chapter and this entire story even though i KNOW not a lot of people really care about rhysothy if theres no jack

Timothy's eyes opened groggily as he regained his senses. When he opened his eyes, everything was blurry. The only thing that actually registered in his mind was that he was in a bed. An actual bed. Like back home. Gliding his hand across the soft, orange fabric, he momentarily forgot to check the rest of the area out, his mind flooding with memories of his life before all this. Damn, he wanted to go home.

After reminiscing for a bit, he snapped back to reality, taking a good look at the room he was in. There was an orange tinted light illuminating the room from the inside the floor, covered by glass. A desk stood next to the bed, with Timothy's rifle and another weapon he was carrying (it was just a butter knife) laid atop it. He had no idea where this was, but he was already getting suspicious. Carefully touching his face, Tim was relieved to find his mask still there. At least the people who probably brought him here had the decency to leave it.

What Timothy didn't notice, however, was the window that was on the ceiling. Peering into the window was the mysterious Atlas man who had met Tim back in Three Horns, looking for Elpis moonstones. See, this man was on a quest. His quest was to find moonstones that had apparently landed in the geysers at the valley and use the elements (supposedly) inside to create Atlas weapons and tech. It was a pretty great plan, or so the man thought. 

When Timothy had fainted right in front of them, the man and his workers quickly rushed Tim to the nearest Atlas base. The man, who was still kind of new at the whole CEO thing, had made Atlas famous across the Borderlands once again. His reign as CEO has so far resulted in more Atlas military presence across the planets, more technology, weapons, and of course, more bases. Through the top secret Atlas base already on Pandora, the man quickly rounded up ex-Hyperion, ex-Dahl, and even ex-Atlas who were kicked out to help him spread Atlas' influence across Pandora again. And it had worked, with bases being in every major Pandoran landmark! But you're not here for an Atlas exposition story, you're here to see what's up with this man, Timothy, and how they get along from here on out. 

Continuing on, the man and his workers quickly realized what the problem was: malnutrition. They ended up having to force-feed poor Timothy some Atlas rations they were going to save if there was ever a planetary emergency. Through his mask hole, wanting to respect his privacy and all. They literally had to make him chew it himself, as he was out cold. It was gross. After the ordeal, they promptly put the bandit in one of the extra worker rooms and watched from the control room to wait for him. 

With Timothy now being awake, the man walked to where the entrance to the room was, a floor below the control room, hence why a window was on the ceiling. The man, pretty disheveled from having to carry Tim's unconscious body to the base with little help from his valued workers, knocked on the door hesitantly.

Hearing the knock, Timothy tried to stand up, but automatically felt dizzy. Sitting back down, he just yelled a weak "come in" as he leaned on his open palm with his head. In his peripheral vision, Timothy saw the man, which made his heart jump. He sure was glad his mask hadn't been ripped from his face, because he definitely did not want this very attractive man to suddenly see Handsome fucking Jack. 

"Bet you're wondering about the mask, huh? Well," Timothy saw the man smirk, making his heart do about ten backflips in a millisecond. "You seem like a respectable bandit, as respectable as bandits can be, and we wouldn't want you to be made uncomfortable, you know?"

Timothy nodded, feeling his face flush as the man seemed to inch closer to him. 

"So, what's your name? I don't want to keep calling you 'bandit', unless that is your real name." The man laughed at his dumb jab.

"I'm.." Timothy hesitated. Before escaping Hyperion's grasp, he never was allowed to say his name. They said that they would kill him, or worse, and he didn't want to take any chances. Now that Tim wasn't bound by that contract anymore, he had to get used to introducing himself as him. Not Jack. 

"My name is Timothy." 

Timothy exhaled as he finally managed to get the words out. After saying these words, he realized he hasn't said his actual name out loud in years. It was like a relief. He wasn't Jack. 

"Well, Timothy, I'm Rhys, owner of Atlas," Rhys looked at Timothy, looking a bit nervous. 

Timothy had to keep himself from throwing himself at the Atlas CEO immediately. He hated it when he got nervous and flustered, it was just the worst. He would make inhuman noises, babble on about random shit, it was just hell for everyone in close proximity. Tim kept holding himself back from doing all these things, even though he couldn't really control it. Why did his name have to be attractive too, if that even made sense? God, Timothy hated this.

"I, uh, hi Rhys, I'm Ti-" Timothy slapped himself in the face. Literally, this time. "I mean, I, okay I'm-" 

"You're nervous, aren't you?" Alarm bells rang in Timothy's head. Had he caught on? 

Rhys laughed and sat down on the bed next to Timothy. 

"Don't worry, I would be nervous too; new place, unfamiliar people, it's fine." Timothy breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god that was all Rhys suspected!

"Yeah, um, is it okay if I get some rest?" Timothy managed to get out normally. Rhys nodded.

"Yeah, of course, I just uh, wanted to check on ya!" Rhys made a clicking noise with his tongue, making finger guns as he tried to walk out the door backwards. He bumped into the wall. Nervously laughing, he walked out the door normally and closed it.

Timothy hadn't even noticed the ordeal as he was too busy sweating like a skag, or however that one saying goes. He was so flushed under his mask he debated taking it off, but then realized if they were monitoring him, they would see how he looked. So he just curled up into a ball and thought about Rhys.

He was the Atlas CEO. This information echoed inside Timothy's head as he tried to rationalize these thoughts. This could just be an infatuation! Well, if it was that, then why had his feelings been so strong? Okay, good point. Finally, after moments of debate, Timothy came to terms with his conscious.

He had a crush on the CEO of Atlas, which basically meant he was fucked for life.


End file.
